It's time to pack again, as the title says. This time, it's to pack to return to Canada.
There are some trivial similarities. Same bags, almost the same people, clothes, items, etcetera. We're having fun (which seems to be, excitably, the norm, whenever both teams are together), and we've got music playing in the background - though this time, it's Crystal's "older" music instead of VBS songs.

It feels somewhat lonelier, though.

Coming here, I was nervous, not too certain about how the experience would be, how I would help, who would help me. I was excited, eager to apply what gifts God has given me in his service.

Now that our time here is coming to an end (for this year), having gone through these two weeks with people I have just met and come to know, I've built bonds. Bonds which my other team members here have had for several years. I think I can understand why they love to keep coming back.

Before I began taking part in STM preparation back in early spring, I was told that even though we come every year intending to give of ourselves to Ukraine, God is so generous that He gives back to us even more than what we first gave in our time here. We end up going back home not just having blessed others, but, through God's will, being blessed ourselves as well. It was something that I thought was strange at the time, and perhaps even a bit confusing to expect out of a mission trip. On reflection now, though, it feels very natural, and I am nothing but thankful for it.

And what more can I say? Though there are certainly many details, I will refrain from recounting them here, so that what I have already written can stand for itself. Let this post for now be testament to God being at work in Ukraine.